Dream, Wake, Repeat
by Awkakes
Summary: AU, There are nightmares on Earth that cannot be ignored by Merry-go Co., so when they send down Dream Catchers to find and eliminate those nightmares, they can only hope that one little Catcher doesn't end up dreaming himself.
1. Prologue: Wakeup Call

**Dame:** Why hello there, who might you all be? Apparently after a year or so I've hoped on and off many band wagons and apparently this time I got kicked off and I ended up here...in the One Piece section...Now some of you who read my other stories might want to beat me with a stick, but I reassure you. THEY. ARE. GETTING. DONE.

So I hope you all enjoy learning about the studies of Polysomnography and a touch of fantasy because in this story, those two are the things I like writing the most! Ace and Luffy too of course!

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own One Piece, if I did though, I would have a very fun time with Episode 0 ;D_

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><p><strong>Prologue: Wakeup Call<strong>

The obnoxious ringing was not something most people enjoyed waking up to everyday. Some were still lost within REM or deep sleep, while some were annoyed with the light rest they had the night before. The loud echoing siren never ceased to end until a fist came down upon the poor clock, leaving it close to its utter demise.

Portgas D. Ace did not want to be woken up like this. The thought of a wake-up call never occurred to happen to the college student, especially at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m. Usually the call time would be 6, no, 7, no, maybe even 10, but whatever it was, the poor object could only await the terror of what was to befall itself when the male sat up, or at least attempted to.

If it wasn't for the sudden weight on his stomach he would have bashed the clock into tiny little bolts. It shall live for another day!

Now all he had to do now was get rid of the obstacle to a normal nights rest.

Groaning Ace covered his eyes with his palms almost as if they were obstructing the light. Looking on the bright side of things, at least he went to bed early, so what's a heavy object going to do to make him angry.

"Uhmm…hi?"

That is, if it was an object that woke the poor student up.

Great, now all Ace had to do was shut his eyes and hope for some miracle that this large 'object' resting on his stomach would just disappear into a narcoleptic fit and he'll wake up the next morning knowing that this was all just a dream.

Yes, that is all it was, just a really scary dream, one with flying 'objects' and direct hits to the stomach. '_Well, that's great, it's the last time I'm drinking with Zoro before an exam_,' Ace felt a sigh escape his mouth. What he would do just to get back into la la land.

"Ahh, my bad, my foot slipped and in the spur of the moment I couldn't tell right from left and ended up falling on top of you. I hope I didn't wake you."

An oncoming scoff was making its way through pursed lips before Ace held it back. What, did the kid trip over the side of his bed or something?

He felt the weight on his stomach shift a bit and could have sworn whoever it is was now lying down over his chest staring at his face.

"Well…if you're still asleep that's good too, Merry-go would be relieved."

Wait, what...who's Merry-go?

"Well then, I better make my way out of here…"

The weight was back on his stomach before Ace fully registered that this was a human being sitting on top of him. A living. Breathing. Human.

_HOW DID THEY GET INTO MY ROOM IN THE FIRST PLACE?_

Ace jerked up so fast he swore his back just flew out the window. Rubbing his eyes free of any dust that the sand man has possibly left behind he blinked a few times until the moon eventually made its way through the drapes to only have Ace hear his own breath hitch at the sight before him.

The kid, who somehow ended up in his room was turned to the side, eyes hidden due to the angle, and was fidgeting with what seemed to be some kind of bag.

He was not pale or anything scary of that nature, but his cheeks were tinted a bright pink, probably from embarrassment, and a small scar running down under his left eye. His hair was hidden by a hood, but the college student could tell that it was as black as the sky outside.

A long blue and navy hoodie seemed to cover the small figure and red shorts trimmed with fluff peaked out from underneath. It was only then that the other realized that Ace was staring as he jerked his head towards the seemingly older male in a fashion Ace could've sworn he heard a bone snap.

But that wasn't what had Ace speechless, it was the others eyes. Dark obsidian eyes that reflected the moons rays turned them an off-blue were both staring directly at him, almost frozen in a block of ice. It was only then that Ace realized that there was something off about the kid, something almost unearthly.

Remembering that he wasn't breathing Ace quickly drew in a breath as the other male scrambled off of his stomach to the edge of the bed, grabbing a pillow to hide behind.

"Uh- Uhh…" the boy's voice was muffled due to the pillow but the other male could still hear him clearly, "I-I am not here, this is all a dream…I am not the person you think I am-"

Ace was almost baffled by the intruder's tone, almost like a child hiding the scribbles on the wall from his parents, and threw the blankets off of him to actually get a better look at the seemingly younger male. Seeing the other dart back behind the pillow Ace could only smirk at the childlike antics and debated in his head whether or not to beat this kid for interrupting his sleep.

Deciding not to he took the safer and more civil approach and poked at the pillow the kid fiercely put up between them.

"Hey, what are you doing in my room?"

There was no answer.

"How'd you even get here?"

"…"

A sigh was released as he continued poking at the pillow. "Are you going to answer my questions, brat?"

The other stiffened and the same dark eyes glared over the pillow at the college student almost hissing, "I'm not a brat."

Happy to get a reaction from the strange kid Ace could only grin even more, "You seem like one to me."

"I am not, human!"

That had the freckled male confused, "Human?" '_Is that supposed to be some kind of insult?'_ "Aren't you one yourself?"

Realizing his mistake the other immediately began whistling an off tone vaguely saying I don't know what you're talking about. Ha. Ha. Ha.

That didn't answer Ace's question as he felt a nerve almost twitch in annoyance. Grabbing the pillow away from the other male he threw it across the room and reached for the others wrists in a tight grip.

Attempting to relinquish the hold, the younger male felt almost helpless in the grasp but continued to struggle. There is no way he can get caught now, heck he didn't even expect to be seen so soon. What will the others say?

"Well brat, you didn't answer my question."

Annoyance was now visible on both faces as eyes connected angrily at each other.

After a few minutes of the intense staring contest the other male let out a heavy sigh and sat on the back of his legs submissively.

"I was hungry and the dream you were having seemed very appetizing."

If confusion was not written on the D.'s face, it definitely was now.

"Anyways," the other continued, "I am here because I really wanted to eat your dream, but now that you're awake, I'll have to find someone else to eat off of."

"Just…" Ace finally chocked out, "What in the world are you?"

"Hmm?" An eyebrow was lifted almost childishly as a large grin appeared on the others face, "I thought you would know, but I think I can tell you. You humans call me something similar to a tapir."

This dream was definitely spiraling out of control now. Ace was itching to pinch himself awake only to find the attempt worthless.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, my job, is to catch and eat Dreams."

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><p><strong>Dame:<strong> So, how was it? Sorry for any errors or slight OOC D8 Its still the prologue but I'm still debating whether or not to make this with pairings or without. To be honest though I really have a deep weakness for the D. Brothers...and a few others but, I'll see how next chapter turns out before I decide on any pairings. I'm estimating for this to be a quick-moderate fic (I hope) so I could have time to work on my other stories, well, until then, CHAOS! (・□´・ｷ)＝≡⊃))


	2. Dozing Off

**Dame:** Oh gawd, I'm so sorry, I was so caught up in other things that I almost forgot I had this. I'm sorry, well I'm sure not much damage was done. So that's a relief. I thank you all for the favorites and alerts.

Oh and thank you _Nekoi Kurona _for reviewing as well. (Yes, Luffy is a little _baku_ in this one :D) So without further to do, here is where I set the plot. So the action and stuff doesn't kick in just yet. Enjoy nonetheless!

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own One Piece, Odacchi does instead, and is doing a good job might I add :) _(Slight OOC?)_  
><em>

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Dozing Off<strong>

It was long past 3 in the morning and Ace swore if he heard his alarm clock tick a second by he wasn't going to be the only one who got sat on.

"Wait, let me get this straight."

Luffy stared at the other male. Shifting the pillow he picked back up a little lower to get a better look at what_ was_ to be his meal.

"You came into my room, because you were _hungry_?"

"Yup."

Ace brought a hand up to rub his temple, "And so you, something akin to a Brazilian _pig _woke me up just to eat my dream, _because you were hungry_?"

The younger scrunched up his nose, "I may have said I was like a tapir, but I am not an endangered species from South-y America."

"Uh…huh," Ace sighed, really, he was too tired to deal with this, there is no way his mind was willing to comprehend everything that was happening at the moment. Now that he thought about it, just what was is it that he has done to deserve this? "Then what would you call yourself? Besides a tapir."

"I guess a Dream Catcher would be fine," Luffy smiled wider as he scooted a little closer to the college student. "I knew humans were weird, but I never expected them to act like this. I guess that's why Nami's always said not to bother them at night, especially when it's time for us to _munch _on dreams."

Wait, what did he just say about _munch_? Ace felt his mouth drop a little, realization dawning upon him, does this mean the whole time he was asleep in his life, there was someone munching on what he dreamt about? An invasion of privacy much? "Yeah, same goes for you, brat."

Luffy scowled and puffed his cheeks out in protest, "I told you, I'm not a brat!" Dropping the pillow he gripped the sheets impatiently before letting out a few breaths. "I've told you my name, but you never told me yours, what is it?"

The older male rubbed his eyes a bit more and waited for them to adjust to the dark room. "Ace. Portgas D. Ace." He repeated making sure the 'spirit' heard him. "You said something earlier, a name, 'Namie,'or something like that. Could you care to explain to me about what's going on?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." The spirit got up and plopped himself side-by-side with the human, making sure he pulled the blankets up with him, "It'll be a good bedtime story, and you look really _really _tired."

Ace could only nod.

"But you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone, Nami told me I'm supposed to be on a really important mission and no one can find out what it is. Not even the fact that I am a Dream Catcher."

The freckled male felt his eye twitch a little. "Then why did you just tell me that?"

"Tell you what?"

.

..

…

"Never mind."

Hands clapped together for attention, "Oh, okay then, well, it all started when…"

zZz

_Earlier that night…_

If counting _Merry's_ was annoying enough this was definitely pushing it. Though Kaya wasn't really angry, she still wasn't pleased with what happened to her study, then again, the only thing that was preventing her from her desk was-

-Sand.

Like an hour glass, her office was being filled to the brim with sand, most likely from Merry-Go's room, but who arranged the piping to let the sand fall directly above her desk? Well, that's why she had the three idiots in front of her whistling an off tune.

"Usopp, Luffy, Chopper, why is there sand in my office?"

The platinum blond was one who would never burst into angry fits, that's what Nami was for, but she still could not help but wonder, why in the world these three allowed sand to fall in from the ventilation.

"Aha, well you see Kaya, this guy over here," a finger was pointing to a blue-nosed reindeer, "Broke the lever to level the amount of sand in the room above, which is why it is flooding down here."

"HEH! USOPP!" the little reindeer stared jaw-dropped at his long nosed companion, "Wasn't it _you_ who had the idea to use the lever first!"

Kaya began to feel a smile grow on her face at the two spirits bickering before turning over to the last of the three, "Luffy, do you know what happened?"

The last of the three grinned widely before bouncing up to Kaya, Usopp sighed as he realized their intentions were about to be revealed, Luffy could not and would not lie to anyone, especially his 'nakama.'

"Usopp thought you were working so hard that he wanted you to get some rest, which is why the sandman's sand is here, Chopper pulled the lever a bit too hard when we only meant to use a little and everything went boom from there, shishishi." The grinning teen turned over to the now hiding reindeer, "You were so strong Chopper! I think even Nami would be glad to know you got stronger!"

A furry hip started sway back and forth, "Saying those kinds of things won't make me happy, you know you bastard!" Chopper laughed attempting to whack Luffy with good humor. The little reindeer always have seemed to have a problem with controlling his emotions.

Kaya was now laughing as she walked up to the rest of the group, "Thank you Usopp, Chopper, and you to Luffy, but you really didn't need to."

"We're just worried for you."

"You're overworking yourself," Chopper added looking towards the blond worriedly, "Did something happen that caused you so much stress, it's not healthy."

The laughing stopped as Kaya now looked quietly from the trio to her desk and pulled a lever emptying the room of sand and sat down.

"Oh don't worry about me, just like you said, I'm just a little tired," the smile turned slightly grim, "For now why don't you all to go and check on Merry-go, she must have been panicking the whole way through the broken leverage."

"Un, got it!" Luffy sat up and headed towards the door followed by Chopper, "Usopp, you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in a sec, go on without me," the long-nosed teen waved Luffy off before sitting in front of Kaya.

"Aye aye sir!" the door to the room closed without a sound leaving the two spirits behind.

zZz

Seeing the door shut completely eyes turned back to the head spirit, "Alright Kaya, what is that's bothering you." Usopp could see the other female stiffen completely.

The girl let out a sigh, "I can't lie to you can I, Usopp?"

"Of course not," the teen boasted a playful smirk, "Lying is what I specialize in."

"Well if that's the case, then I have no other choice but to tell you." Kaya motioned for Usopp to come near her desk and look at the documents on it.

Wordlessly glancing at the papers laid out in front of him, brown eyes widened considerably as the patterns of red and blue danced over the papers.

"I've been getting a lot of reports from the groups that harvest dreams," Kaya started as she quietly fisted her free hand. "But…"

"But…?"

Nails started digging into the pale skin, "But, before we could get an immediate reason why, those groups always, for some reason, just vanish."

"Vanish? VANISH! Oi, oi, oi Kaya! This is not good!"

"I know. I know, Usopp." The blond started shaking her head dishearteningly, "But for now, the only clue we have to finding out what's happening to them is through these graphs."

The long-nosed teen could only bring a hand up to his chin to think, "I don't know Kaya, something tells me it's not somnipathy that's causing the disappearances."

zZz

Luffy and Chopper's faces weren't just glued together. They were stuck together almost permanently.

"Nah, Luffy, what do you think they are talking about?"

Luffy tightened his lips as he pressed his ear closer to the door. "I don't know…I hear something about…somnipa- saminipath-"

"Somnipathy?"

"Yeah, I think that's what it was, and words 'disappearances' and 'harvest.'"

Chopper tightened his hold on Luffy's leg, "That's strange, from what I know, somnipathy are a variety of sleeping disorders. What does that have to do with 'disappearances' and 'harvest?'"

The black haired teen kneeled down to the smaller reindeer's eye level, "Nah, Chopper. We have people going down to harvest the dreams we store up here right?"

"We do, but from what we've heard," brown orbs stared up into obsidian worriedly, "Kaya says that the harvesters are disappearing…"

Luffy held his breath when he bent in a little closer. "But if their disappearing then that means…"

Hoofs started flailing causing longer limbs to flail in corresponding realization, "WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE!"

A heavy fist came crashing onto the two knuckleheads before it was brought back up steaming from its fingertips.

"What are you two doing?" A pissed off voice hissed at the two rubbing their heads in pain.

"Oh Nami! It's terrible! If there aren't any more dreams then I won't be able to eat meat, and if I can't eat meat, I'll have to eat cheeessee!" Luffy began shaking the older beli lover, "We can't go on like this! You have to always eat _something _with cheeeeeesssssseee!"

"Calm down Luffy, calm down," Nami sighed as she stared at the younger male. Trying her hardest not to punch the little idiot she removed the flailing hands from her arms and adjusted the files threatening to fall. "We are not running out of dreams, and we are for sure _not_ going to resort to eating cheese…"

"But the harvest is disappearing! We're all going to staaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrvvveee!"

"If you keep insisting on them disappearing, then I can send you off with no dinner to save some for _us_, god knows how much you eat every day."

"WHAT!"

Chopper holding onto Nami's leg looked up at his two friends. "Nami, you're not really going to send us off with no dinner right?"

The orange haired woman steadied the little reindeer until he was able to stand normally again," I won't. But anyways, I just went to Merry-go's room to check on her. I heard some idiot broke a lever and she was bleating louder than what I can ignore. Do you know who did it?"

"Huh? A lever broke? CHOPPER! WASN'T THAT YOU?"

"AHH! DON'T SAY THAT IN FRONT OF HER!" the reindeer attempted to cover the elders mouth.

Several new lumps now formed on both heads.

"So you checked on Merry already Nami?" Chopper was spinning before he fell onto his back dizzy.

"Yes, why?"

"YOSH! WE CAN GO BACK TO USOPP AND KAYA!" Luffy cheered as he turned around to find said two staring at them from the doorway.

"Luffy, Chopper," The platinum haired girl had a small smile on her face.

The D. noted the nervousness in the others voice before deeming it unimportant, "Kaya! We were going to go back in! You could've just stayed in there with Usopp!"

"It's okay," the girl paused as she looked over to Nami, "Oh Nami! You're here! Does that mean you have the plans?"

A smile danced upon Nami's face as the only sane spirit in the building was in front of her, "Of course!" She passed the folders to Kaya who almost dropped the light blue files. "There were a lot but I managed to get my hands on the one even the idiot could understand."

Usopp sighed as he noted she was probably talking about Luffy. He knew Luffy was not the brightest dream bubble in the sky, but there were times where his friend got a bit questionable. It was like Luffy was forever gifted with the personality of a child, but the smarts of a mad genius. "Now Nami, that's no way to talk about Luffy, after all, he is a proud member of the Usopp Dream Catchers! There's no telling what marvelous accomplishments we have just finished within the last hour."

"Besides breaking a lever causing Merry to freak and filling Kaya's room with sand and having Luffy freak out over cheese?"

"That was Chopper, and you know that Luffy doesn't really like cheese, but correctomundo witch-!"

THWACK!

"Usopp!" the blond haired female rushed over to the three face-planted bodies on the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Nammiiiii why'd you hit me too!" Luffy started to pull his head out of the hole he made in the ground, "You could at least warn us before you do that!"

"Take responsibilities for your team's actions!" the tempered spirit cracked her knuckles ready to hit the idiot trio again. "Listen and pay attention, the new mission is for you guys."

"You're sending us?" Chopper tilted his head to the side, "But you never send us on missions-"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Tiny legs immediately ran to hide behind Luffy. "N-n-no!"

"It'd be like the adventure you've always wanted," Kaya winked to the other two spirits.

"An adventure!" a playful smile dotted Luffy's face. "You hear that Usopp? We get to go on an adventure!"

The long-nosed teen looked a bit nervous at the news, "I don't know Luffy, something tells me this is going to be a bad adventure, _badbadbadbadbad_, especially the situation that's going on right now…"

"It won't be too bad if you listen," Nami muttered as she tapped the goat tag around her neck, a holographic projector shown itself on the wall in front of them. "You guys after all are our _combat_ team."

"Whoa, define _combat_ Nami!" Usopp almost screeched.

"Ah! This sounds interesting!" the dark haired teen started jumping happily.

Ignoring the two the orange haired spirit moved to point at the holograph, "This is the planet Earth. This is where we send harvesters, inducers and in a special case you three, the catchers."

Usopp and Kaya nodded in agreement as Luffy and Chopper stared at the hologram in amazement.

"Your mission is to catch the dreams that have been hoping around, human to human." She continued before changing a slide to what comically looks like a purple-blackish cloud with red demonic eyes. "Though for obvious reasons, nightmares do not always look like this, but you can tell whether or not their bad. Just look for any mishaps in the dream, odd shapes, dark shadows, and anything that looks out of place."

"So we just have to catch them?" Usopp looked at the slide a bit relieved, "That shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"Now that's where you're wrong," Nami smirked before changing the slides once more, "Nightmares not only cause great distress in the dreamer, but if one of us were to get caught by one of them in a dream, we would ultimately die."

"D-d-d-die?" Chopper looked alarmingly at his other companions in the room, "Then how are we supposed to get rid of them?"

"Would a net work?" Luffy brought the object on his back into his hands, "I even got a cage."

"That's for you to decide, the only methods we know of extinguishing nightmares are to flip the pillow or something along those lines. Any other methods are unknown, and since harvesters have been going missing I'm pretty sure our bells won't do a thing…"

"Then we're basically walking in to our deaths?"

"No, you'll survive, I think…"

Silence awkwardly took place in the conversation before eyes settled onto the slide.

"Luffy put the net down, I don't think you'll need it…" The dark-skinned teen felt an eyebrow rise at the other who was currently tickling Chopper with the net. "So, what are the rest of the orders?"

"Let's just say for now, once you reach earth, do not, and I mean, do _NOT_ get caught. Humans or nightmares, whatever, just don't reveal yourself to _anyone_." Nami finished the slide and turned off the projector.

"How about a case where you _do_ get caught?" the liar pressed on.

"You can decide what to do in that situation," Nami smirked before walking over to what looks like a lever and pulled it opening the ground underneath the catchers, "Have a safe trip. Don't worry. I hear it's an all-you-can-eat-buffet down there."

zZz

"…and they all lived happily ever after. The end." Luffy grinned before clapping his hands to finish.

Ace felt his mouth gape open and close at what he just heard. "That's it?"

"Pretty much…" the smile got brighter.

"So, what have you decided then?" he was curious as to what the spirit would decide to do with him. From what he now knows, it seems like taboo to even know the others existence. "You're not going to erase my memories or anything?"

"No, I don't need to do that," Luffy brought the blankets closer to him and fluffed the pillow behind him. Lying down on the bed he wrapped his arms around Ace's torso. "I decided..."

Feeling his cheeks go a bit red from the spirits actions Ace looked at the him as if he stretched like rubber, "D-decided what?"

"Whenever I'm hungry," tired black eyes stared into gray almost cheerfully, "Be my buffet, okay Ace?"

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><p><strong>Dame:<strong> Oh Luffy, food to the end huh? Hmmm, did I throw to much info onto you guys? (Is clueless) Well, next chapter is when the _real _plot starts! Do I have any idea where I'm going with this? Yes, yes I do! This is only the beginning, so I'm sorry if its a bit rushed/OOC (Cant be helped...). Still debating to myself if I should make this a romance or a friendship, you're welcome to input your opinions. Truthfully I'm fine with either. xD (I snuck a hug in there) CHAOS! Until next chapter~


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